Radiation-Induced "Zero-Resistance State" and the Photon Assisted Transport

TL;DR

This paper explains the radiation-induced zero-resistance state in a 2D electron gas as a consequence of the system's density of states and photon-assisted transport, supported by a toy model and a generalized conductivity formula.

Contribution

It introduces a toy model capturing key experimental features and derives a generalized conductivity formula for photon-assisted transport in such systems.

Findings

The zero-resistance state arises from the structure of the density of states.

Photon-assisted transport explains the observed anomalies.

The generalized conductivity formula applies to various systems.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the radiation induced "zero-resistance state" observed in a two-dimensional electron gas is a result of the non-trivial structure of the density of states of the systems and the photon assisted transport. A toy model of a structureless quantum tunneling junction where the system has oscillatory density of states catches most of the important features of the experiments. We present a generalized Kubo-Greenwood conductivity formula for the photon assisted transport in a general system, and show essentially the same nature of the transport anomaly in a uniform system.